Rampage Break Breaks Streak

The Rampage were riding a six-game winning streak, pounding the Milwaukee Admirals net with a season high 52 shots on goal last Friday.

Then turned out the lights for a week.

The effect was a wobbly win in Houston Friday night and another loss in Death Valley, i.e. Cedar Park (where the Rampage are 1-4-3 over the two seasons of Stars hockey). They only had NINE shots on goal after two periods Saturday night!

San Antonio skaters were whistled for 10 minors in the Toyota Center and survived. But couldn’t get over the hump in the CDC when they allowed seven Texas power plays.

A minor penalty is usually called for three reasons: 1) a player gets beat and makes a stupid mistake like tripping, slashing or hooking; 2) a player is tired and makes a stupid mistake like tripping, slashing or hooking or 3), the ref blows the call because someone looked like they were tripping, slashing or hooking someone.

Players who haven’t played in a week can be counted on to be a step behind, which leads to penalties, which leads to rhythm destroying penalty killing as lines get abused since players from different lines get used on the PK and then miss a shift with their linemates.

The good news is the Rampage split two games when they were at their worst in three weeks and since they should have their legs back under them, playing Sunday afternoon should be a good thing.

Three-in-Three Shouldn’t Affect Rampage

Since Ray Edwards and company seem to have 88 players on their roster, playing a condensed schedule as the AHL makes their teams play in order to take advantage of weekend dates shouldn’t been too difficult for the Rampage.

Alex Picard took a seat in the stands for Saturday’s game, since teams can only skate six veterans per game. Since the Coyotes sent Petr Prucha to San Antonio after the former ripshot artist had no goals and one assist in 13 games, that left SA over the veteran limit.

Prucha scored 30 of his 78 NHL goals in his rookie year five years ago and his production has been in decline ever since. He flew through waivers, which means no other team wants to pick him up or his salary, so this may be his last chance to prove to Phoenix higher-ups he wants to be in Coyote red and white.

A sent down NHL player can take the demotion one of two ways — work hard to get back to flying charter, or sit and sulk on the bus to Austin and Houston or flying coach at 6 a.m.

Around the AHL

The Grand Rapids Griffins outlasted the Chicago Wolves, 10-8 Saturday, as the visiting Griffins scored SEVEN goals in the second period. Bob Kaser, the long time Grand Rapids announcer, must have been hoarse at the end of that period. Wolves goalie, Edward Pasquale, who had loads of problems his last time in San Antonio when he allowed four goals in the first period, gave up seven of the Griffins goals, but Peter Mennino wasn’t much better, seeing the red light flash three times in just 3:59 of ice time. Griffins left wing Tomas Tatar was +7 and had two goals and five assists in the game. Defenseman Travis Ehrhardt (seems like one too many h’s in that name) was +6, which is partially explained in the stat of the game — the Griffins were 0-for-6 on the power play! All 10 goals were even strength, although the last one was an empty netter.

The Wolves have now allowed 88 goals, second only to league doormat Adirondack (90 allowed with a 3-17-2 mark). They could use former backstop Ondrej Pavelec, who has led the parent Atlanta Thrashers to three straight wins, including two shutouts at the NHL level this past week. Usually, the Wolves could be counted on to score at will. Exhibit A is Saturday night’s eight-spot in losing to the Griffins. But they can’t seem to keep the puck out of their own net as they have the worst penalty killers in the league at just 70 percent kill and that didn’t even come into play Saturday in keeping the Griffins off the board with the man advantage.

Looks like Rockford could be in for a tough season. The IceHogs are at rock bottom after losing 5-0 Saturday night at home in front of 5,233 fans. The Hogs are now 8-10-1 and in last place in the West Division, but knowing head coach Bill Peters and team president Mark Bernard, they won’t be down for long. Look for some positive changes in the next few weeks.

The Rampage drop behind Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Hamilton for the league’s best record with their loss to Texas. The Penguins are out to a 16-4-0-0 start, while the Bulldogs, Montreal’s top affiliate, is leading the North Division at 13-3-1-3.

What has to be somewhat discouraging to all division leaders is that despite their great starts this season, only WBS leads by more than three points (4). Eleven teams are playing .600 hockey or better this season!

For the first time in memory, a Rampage player is in the Top 10 in league scoring two months into the season. Matt Beaudoin’s 23 points is tied for fifth in the AHL going into play Saturday night. He and Linus Omark of OKC (who scored five goals in one game), are the only Western Conference representatives in the top 10.

It took him awhile, but guess who’s leading the AHL in penalty minutes? Yep, former Rampage tough guy and resident basket case, Frankie Lessard with 123. His total is the only AHL skater in triple digits thus far this season.

If you’re wondering what the Connecticut team is playing in the AHL’s Atlantic Division is — they used to be the Hartford WolfPack. But the Wolfpack was sent, um, packing as the Connecticut capital city team has reverted back to their NHL history and renamed the team, the Connecticut Whale, in honor of the Hartford Whalers, nee the New England Whalers which began in the World Hockey Association in Boston. Just a weird thing — team officials waited until a fourth of the season was over before making the change instead of before the season started. The most notable Whale for Rampage fans? Chad Kolarik.

When looking at a team’s stat sheet, there’s a FG column — no, not field goal as in football or basketball, but first goal (at one time I thought it was for “fancy goal”) — but the reason it’s brought up here is that Alex Picard is tied for the AHL lead with four first goals with two other guys you haven’t heard of.

Former Rampager Chris Durno is tied for the AHL lead in plus-minus at 14 to the good. Durno scored what may be the most exciting goal in Rampage history, scoring with less than a second on the clock to win a game three years ago.

Former Rampage defenseman Sean Sullivan had 6 goals and 5 assists with the Worcester Sharks this season. Former Rampage goaltender, Justin Pogge has the same numbers for Charlotte, 6 wins and 5 losses.

Brett MacLean, who tied Joel Perrault’s 60 goals for the most in Rampage history Friday night in Houston, is second in the league with 98 shots on goal. Nine have gone in.